Wakko was laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling as he was absentmindedly rolling a razor blade around in the palm of his hand. He was trying hard not to think and to do that he needed to focus on something and that something happened to be the razor blade. It used to belong to Yakko before he died…
A stinging sensation and then a feeling of warm liquid welling from palm brought him out of it. He dropped the razor, inspecting the damage; it was a pretty sizable cut with a steady stream of ink running. Wakko sucked in a sharp breath as he felt fear spike his heart, how was he going to explain this to Scratchy? He let out a frustrated groan as he realized that if he did tell then Scratchy would take away the razor and keep a much closer eye on him than he already was…
Wakko had absolutely no intention of letting go of the razor, it was the only thing he had left of Yakko after...
After the accident…
He shook his head to clear out that unfortunate thought. He decided that he wasn't going to tell Scratchy about the cut; he would just sneak into the bathroom, bandage it up, and hide it from him til it healed. Yeah, that would totally work…
So that's what Wakko set out to do, right after putting the razor into his hammerspace. With his hand pressed against his shirt, he went up to the door, making sure to open it up just a crack so that he could see if Scratchy was in the hallway. At that moment it was clear, so he made his way to the bathroom. He was about to reach up and grab ahold of the doorknob when, without warning, Scratchy appeared behind him.
"Vhat are you doing being awake at one in zhe morning?"
Wakko cringed inwardly as he heard the concern laced in the p-sychiatrist's German-accented voice. A wave of guilt almost overcame him at the thought of lying to him. Wakko tried to reason with himself that it was just a little white lie, nothing too bad, it wasn't like he was bleeding majorly unlike last time.
"Wakko, are you alright?" Scratchy asked.
Wakko silently squared his shoulders before turning around and facing him. He forced himself to look into his eyes before speaking.
"Oh, uh, I need to um," Wakko could feel his heart racing in his chest. "Go, uh, potty. Yeah. Really badly." He tried to sound desperate but to his own ears he sounded like he was on the verge of tears. He really hoped that Scratchy would buy the lie and not notice.
Scratchy stared down at Wakko, it wasn't very long but it was too long for him. He could feel his heart rate speed up even more. Wakko wished that he would just buy it, he absolutely couldn't let Scratchy find out that he had cut himself-
-again. Nonononono…it wasn't intentional this time but he knew that wasn't how he would see it.
Scratchy peered down at him, concern on his face as he spoke.
"Of course I understand, Wakko, it's just that…vell.." He paused, letting out a small sigh. "You von't try it again, right?"
It felt as if an arrow had pierced his heart, he could feel guilt prickle along his spine. Now he definitely didn't need him to know about his cut…
"I know how sad und upset you've been since..the accident and that's vhy you…did zhat but," The concern in his eyes morphed into fear causing Wakko to feel even more guilt, "you'll tell me if you have the urge? It's just that…I'm here for you, Wakko. I think of you a lot like a son…of course I always thought of Yakko und Dot like my children asvell but…I don't think I could deal if I lost you asvell."
Wakko could feel tears begin to sting the corner of his eyes as he listened to Scratchy's speech, the guilt was practically killing him at the moment but..he couldn't give in; his fear of having the razor that once belonged to Yakko be taken away (barely) outweighed his guilt of lying to the only person who had taken him in.
Scratchy's eyes suddenly widened in surprise, "Oh, you still have to use the bathroom. I'm sorry, you can go, I'll vait out here."
In one single fluid motion Wakko entered the bathroom and locked the door. He stood there, staring at the dark oak as a strong surge of remorse crashed over him. Scratchy only wanted what was best for him, why couldn't he just admit that he, this time, accidentally cut himself? Why did he have such a stupid emotional attatchment to a razor?
Because it belonged to Yakko, and it's the only thing that reminds you of him.
Oh, right…
Wakko took a deep breath to try to calm himself down; he had to focus on bandaging his hand up and then trying to hide the bandage from Scratchy-
-And then what?
Just live? Live like you have for the past two weeks? A shell, a husk of your former self?
He shook his head, trying to clear the dumb thoughts that were forming in his mind. There was no use in dwelling on things, he had a cut to clean…
You haven't seen your siblings in a while, what kind of a brother are you? They're waiting out there for you!
Wakko paused, midway through grabbing ahold of the peroxide in the medicine cabinet. He must be going insane, there was no way he could just leave the house without Scratchy knowing. If he left then Scratchy would follow and then things would go from terse to even worse than they already were.
No, it was just best to clean up his wound and then go back to bed and try to fall asleep. If there was one thing that he did best besides eating, it was sleeping. And sleeping was the number one thing he had been doing since the…accident.
You're such a coward; you already got on Scratchy's bad side by doing you know what…what's one more thing gonna do?
He put the peroxide back in the cabinet. Maybe his stupid thoughts were right, maybe he should go out and see his siblings. It had been, what, a week ago? He could feel sadness tug at his heart strings, he really wanted to be with them again.
Wakko could feel his heart hammer in his chest as he went up to the window and tried it, thankfully it was unlocked. He tried to be as quiet as possible while opening it so that Scratchy wouldn't be alerted. It seemed that luck wasn't on his side tonight as Scratchy decided at the very moment to knock on the door. The fur along Wakko's spine raised up and he almost screamed in response.
"Is everything okay in zhere?" Scratchy asked.
Wakko could feel fear prickle his entire body, he decided to just go into overdrive and flung open the window with reckless abandon, not giving a single care if Scratchy heard him or not. He leapt through it and, using his toon powers, was able to slow down the speed of his descent. He landed gracefully on a pile of golden leaves that crunched beneath his feet.
Fall. That was always Dot's favorite season, she loved to jump into giant piles of leaves and hide in them.
His thoughts were interrupted by Scratchy angrily banging on the door, now yelling for him to open up. Wakko felt his blood run cold as he heard the desperate edge to his voice. He needed to get out of there, now!
So he took off into the autumn night..
A tiny spark of joy lit up in his chest as he ran, he could feel the cold fall air blow through his shirt and fur, and he felt the crunch of fallen leaves beneath his feet.
The joy that he had felt during his run snuffed out almost immediately once he reached his destination:
the graveyard, or more specifically the Toon graveyard.
It was a somber place to be, especially now that his siblings resided in it.
Wakko felt his legs start to wobble and shake as he made it closer and closer to the true destination. He could feel the force of his emotions weigh down on him. It was like the bones in his legs had been replaced with lead…
Once he got to the two graves he finally collapsed, falling to his knees in front of them. Wakko let his gaze slowly to the first headstone with the words:
Dot Warner
1929 - 1997
"Call me Dottie and you die!" engraved in hand-crafted white marble.
Then his gaze drifted over to the second headstone. On it were the words:
Yakko Warner
1929 - 1997
"Goodnight Everybody!" engraved in, also, hand-crafted white marble.
Wakko sucked in a shaky breath, "Hi." He figured that he should do what he did last time he had visited them, which was to imitate their voices and pretend they were still there. He imitated Dot's voice first:
"Well, look who finally decided to show up!" 'Dot' complained.
"'m sorry Dot but Scratchy wouldn't let me out of the house for a while cause of-" Wakko tried to explain but was cut off by 'her'.
"Oh sure go ahead and blame Scratchy when you've clearly been lacking on your 'checking in on your dead siblings' duty." 'She' retorted.
Wakko sucked in a breath like he had been punched in the stomach. He could feel remorse begin to prick his heart…'Dot' was right, like always.
Of course now was the time for 'Yakko' to speak up:
"Oh c'mon Dot, lighten up will ya? Clearly he's trying his best-" But 'he' too was cut off by 'Dot', it was clear that 'she' wasn't accepting any excuses tonight.
"Of course you take his side just like you always do!"
"Because you're ragging on him over nothing!" 'Yakko' countered.
Wakko sighed, "Listen, I'm sorry that I haven't been checking on you all as much, it's just that Scratchy has been keeping a…" He paused for a bit before continuing on, "a, um, closer eye on me since…" he trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence.
'Dot' took the opportunity to finish it for him.
"Since that 'little accident'?"
He was suddenly hyper aware of the cuts beneath the bandages on his arms as they began to prickle uncomfortably, he subconsciously touched them in response.
"Hey baby bro, why're you bleeding?" 'Yakko' asked.
Confused, Wakko glanced down at his palm only to realize that, yeah, he was still bleeding. How had he managed to forget that? He stared at it, watching as the blood trickled downward, it was almost mesmerizing. He reached out and prodded it, getting some of it on the tip of his glove.
'Dot' decided to take the moment to speak up, "You could've joined us last week; we would've all three been together again but now's your chance big bro. You can try again."
Wakko nodded lightly in reply; he rolled up the sleeve of his left arm, and reached behind him into his hammerspace, taking out the razor blade.
He was ready, he was committed.
He could go through with it this time.
Nobody could stop him now…once the deed was done he'd finally be free, free and with his siblings.
Wakko gripped the razor tightly between his fingers as he brought it close to his arm, he was about to slice it down when, out of nowhere, he was pulled out of it by someone turning him around and having the item forcefully taken from him. He was fully prepared to scream at whoever had destroyed his plan but the words fizzled on his tongue when he noticed that it was Scratchy…and he looked very upset.
"Vhy…vhy Wakko?" Was all Scratchy could say at first.
Wakko didn't know what to say, what could he say? He knew he couldn't lie his way out of this one…there was just no way to do it. So he did the only thing he could, he asked for his razor back.
"Can I have my razor back?"
It went about as well as he expected.
Scratchy looked at him like he had just spit out a cuss word.
"No, no, no, no, Wakko. You cannot have it back." His voice was really strained, almost as if he was holding back from saying something else.
"You don't get it -" But he was quickly cut off.
Scratchy shook his head fiercely, "No, you can't have this back!"
Wakko gritted his teeth. "I need it back!"
"So that you can slice open your arm, again?" He questioned.
"Because it's the only thing I have from Yakko!" Wakko snapped. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes so he looked away from the doctor. "-and yeah maybe it was the only way that I could see them again…"
He wanted to just give up right then and there and sob. He wouldn't be able to join his siblings. Scratchy was going to force him to go back home and then he would have to go to bed and stay awake all night with his inner-most darkest thoughts crashing like storm-driven waves in his brain until he wouldn't be able to take it anymore and then he would be forced to do something to shut them up and that's why he cut-
-but his spiraling thoughts were (thankfully) interrupted by Scratchy gently shaking him by the shoulders.
A wave of sorrow crashed over Wakko as he realized, not for the first time, that he would never see Yakko and Dot again…never hear them again…
Never be able to jump into unsuspecting women's arms with Yakko and kiss them on the cheek…never be able to marvel at Dot listening to heavy metal whilst she was reading a book…never be able to witness Yakko and Dot have heated debates about which celebrity was the hottest.
never
never
never
The wave of sorrow turned to two turned to three and four and after that he lost track as he felt tears pour freely down his face. Scratchy noticed for he was suddenly scooped up into a warm, comforting hug. And as he was, Wakko finally let it all loose…sobbing his heart out on Scratchy's chest.